BackgroundIn this paper, we demonstrate why and how both temporality and multimodality should be integrated in health related studies that include accessibility perspective, in this case healthy food accessibility. We provide evidence regarding the importance of using multimodal spatio-temporal accessibility measures when conducting research in urban contexts and propose a methodological approach for integrating different travel modes and temporality to spatial accessibility analyses. We use the Helsinki metropolitan area (Finland) as our case study region to demonstrate the effects of temporality and modality on the results.MethodsSpatial analyses were carried out on 250 m statistical grid squares. We measured travel times between the home location of inhabitants and open grocery stores providing healthy food at 5 p.m., 10 p.m., and 1 a.m. using public transportation and private cars. We applied the so-called door-to-door approach for the travel time measurements to obtain more realistic and comparable results between travel modes. The analyses are based on open access data and publicly available open-source tools, thus similar analyses can be conducted in urban regions worldwide.ResultsOur results show that both time and mode of transport have a prominent impact on the outcome of the analyses; thus, understanding the realities of accessibility in a city may be very different according to the setting of the analysis used. In terms of travel time, there is clear variation in the results at different times of the day. In terms of travel mode, our results show that when analyzed in a comparable manner, public transport can be an even faster mode than a private car to access healthy food, especially in central areas of the city where the service network is dense and public transportation system is effective.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that time and transport modes are essential components when modeling health-related accessibility in urban environments. Neglecting them from spatial analyses may lead to overly simplified or even erroneous images of the realities of accessibility. Hence, there is a risk that health related planning and decisions based on simplistic accessibility measures might cause unwanted outcomes in terms of inequality among different groups of people.

The evidence for connections between subjective well-being and spatial factors remains inconclusive, especially with respect to the immediate living environment. To fill this gap, this paper explores the relationship between individuallevel subjective well-being and spatial variables in urban areas. This resolution is achieved by utilizing finely divided geographical information system (GIS)-based neighbourhood data, and controlling for objective and subjective spatial characteristics, as well as socio-spatial factors. The results suggest that subjective well-being has some spatial nature, but the direction of these relationships is highly dependent on the subjective well-being measure used. For example, central pedestrian zones flourish in terms of quality of life, whereas the highest happiness is reported in car-oriented zones. Overall, subjective spatial characteristics are more important for well-being than objective ones.

Deindustrialisation has severely hit Finnish suburban housing estates of the 1960s and 1970s, and socio-economic differences between neighbourhoods have increased. The social disorganisation theory suggests that neighbourhood disadvantage is a risk factor for problems related to social order. This article compares perceptions of social disorder in suburban housing estates compared to other kinds of neighbourhood. Perceived social disorder appears to be most common in the suburban housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s, somewhat less common in other high-rise neighbourhoods, and clearly least common in low-rise areas. Neighbourhood disadvantage predicts perceived social disorder, which partly explains these differences.

HIGHLIGHTS-SAL has proven, besides its limitations, a suitable accessibility measure for local urban and transportation planners.-There are significant differences in potential accessibility between different age group residents in the Helsinki Capital Region.-Children between 0 and 7 years old and students are the age group with worst quality access to their targeted services.-Further research including the frequency of use of services is necessary for a fully evaluation of the uneven accessibility in the area.